Impact of Parenting Style on the Psychosocial Adjustment of Junior Secondary School Students in Eredo Local Government Area, Lagos State

The inability of parents to adopt an effective and balanced parenting style, shifting between authoritarianism, permissiveness, and uninvoled, poses a significant threat to the psychosocial adjustment and overall well-being of adolescents. Despite comprehensive research on parenting behaviours, there remains inadequate studies on how authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful parenting styles impact the psychosocial adjustment of junior secondary school students in Eredo Local Government Area, Lagos State. This study therefore investigatigates the impact of parenting styles on the psychological adjustment of junior secondary school students in Eredo local government area of Lagos State and also recommended improving outcomes through enhanced parenting practices. A descriptive research design of the survey type was adopted for the study. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select respondents across the selected schools and a self-designed questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. Data gathered was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics; at 0.05 level of significance. The instrument was pilot tested on ten (10) randomly selected students using Cronbach alpha result of 0.846 was gotten as the reliability coefficient. Findings revealed that Authoritative parenting combines high responsiveness with moderate demandingness that fosters an environment conducive to the psychological adjustment of students and that there was a strong positive relationship between authoritative parenting style and a positive psychological adjustment of students ( r = 0.333 , n = 300 p = 0 ). Results showed a strong positive relationship between authoritarian parenting and a negative effect of psychological adjustment on students ( r = 0.454 , n = 300 p = 0 ) Uninvolved parenting showed a weak positive relationship with low levels of psychological adjustment ( r = 0.648 , n = 300 p = 0 ) Notably, most respondents in the study expressed interest that parents should adopt authoritative parenting but lacked adequate awareness of its benefits. The study concluded that the majority of correspondents in the Eredo local government area of Lagos State would prefer an authoritative parenting style. Nevertheless, lack of awareness still hinders the best parenting styles to be adopted. This implied that parents' awareness of different parenting styles would improve their parenting methods. The study recommended that; authoritative parenting style should be encouraged, adopted and used by parents because of its balance warmth and discipline, fostering independence and emotional regulation in children; and institutions should create awareness among parents on parenting styles in their institutions by organizing orientation programmes where the parents should further learn on good parenting styles to be adopted for psychological adjustment of the their children/ward.